Taft’s Kihei Clark is a well-grounded point guard

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Taft’s Kihei Clark (11), left, tries to get a shot off against the defense of Roosevelt’s Brennan Wade (33), center, and Matthew Mitchell (21), right, during last year’s playoffs. (File photo by Mark Dustin for the Press Enterprise)

Instead, he grows on you. A year ago he committed to UC Davis, the best alternative among his suitors. Now he has committed to Virginia, the No. 2 team in the nation. Not to disrespect the defending Big West champions, but that is quite a growth spurt.

“Whatever the level of competition has been, he’s been able to rise to it,” Derrick Taylor said. “If he was two inches taller he would have been recruited a lot sooner.”

Taylor is the basketball coach at Taft. He has developed Jordan Farmar, Larry Drew II and Spencer Dinwiddie. Clark is his point guard and Taft was 23-7 overall and 7-1 in league, heading into Tuesday night’s game at Birmingham.

The City Section playoffs are imminent and the Toreadors hope to get through their division and play either Westchester or Fairfax, with Clark averaging 21.3 points, 8.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds. Only one other senior starts. This is his show, but there’s nothing showy about it.

“I used to watch Steve Nash, Chris Paul,” Clark said after Friday night’s win over Cleveland, in which he drained four 3-pointers in the first quarter.

“I don’t want to go out there and try to do things I can’t do. The guys know I’m a point guard. I don’t like to score that much necessarily, just take care of things and be there at the end.”

Inevitably Clark will be compared to London Perrantes, the sleepy-eyed Crespi guard who took his unhurried game to four starting seasons at Virginia and got a cup of Gatorade with the Cleveland Cavaliers this season..

“I hope he becomes as good as London,” said Malik Clark, Kihei’s dad. “London might have been a better shooter at the same age. I think Kihei can put it on the floor better, maybe has a little more wiggle.”

Clark was being pursued by Georgia Tech and Gonzaga, with a late run from UCLA. His choice reveals him. Virginia is not a one-and-done pit stop to the NBA. The Cavaliers play intricate defense, move the ball around, and they don’t usually produce the Play Of The Day. You’ll find them on clinic videos instead.

“I just loved it there when i visited,” Clark said. “Sharing the ball, the winning atmosphere. The screens, the flares, the way they play, it’s something I can’t wait to get involved in. And, yeah, I know I’ll have to be stronger. They’re going to send me a plan for the weight room.”

Kihei was named for the town on the western shore of Maui. It’s where his dad proposed to his mom, Sharon. Fortunately for him, the proposal didn’t happen in Walla Walla.

Malik went to Birmingham High and played basketball at Hawaii-Hilo. Now he runs a construction and trucking company.

His oldest son was interested in soccer and martial arts but, when he was eight he committed to basketball. The process began.

Kihei worked out regularly with his dad and with Derryck Thornton, the point guard who signed with Duke and then transferred to USC. Another boost came from Adam Mazarei, the former Redlands point who became such a renowned talent developer that he joined the staff of the Memphis Grizzlies.

“He went from working out young players to working out Mike Conley,” Malik said. “He was a very big part of what Kihei’s been able to do.”

Everything Clark encountered stretched his game. He learned to accept that nothing would stretch him.

“I was undersized, too,” Malik said. “I told him not to worry about it. Whenever you’re undersized, there’s always a stacked deck. Even now with the success he’s had, there are doubters. You never stop proving yourself.”

“There’s always a size factor, the eye test,” Kihei said. “I always go through it. But I always thought I could compete on a high level.”

He got his chance last summer when he played for the Oakland Soldiers, a renowned AAU program that featured Taeshon Cherry, the 5-star recruit who is headed for Arizona State, and two UC Santa Barbara-bound players. Clark ran into some of the nation’s best and came out unscathed.

Suddenly UC Davis, Boise State, Santa Clara and others of that ilk realized that Clark wasn’t their little secret anymore. But they probably knew it was inevitable, like gravity.